


Odds And Ends

by sisaat



Category: Leverage
Genre: Blood, Ficlet Collection, Nudity, Snippets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-17 05:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11268870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sisaat/pseuds/sisaat
Summary: a collection of contextless snippets, tiny ficlets and could-be-wips





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have a bunch of little bits of stuff I wrote. A couple of the older ones were the precursors to Restless Night. Others I just never did anything with (but might one day).  
> There's some blood and at some point nakedness, but it's all pretty tame. Also warning for mood whiplash. These are all over the place tone-wise.

"It's a star sapphire," Parker explained. "It looks like that because of a flaw, but people like them anyway. Some flaws are okay. Good. Some make you worthless."

* * *

Parker survived by always moving. She didn't feel safe when she stayed still. Too exposed. Even in a room full of friends, of _family_ , there was a nervous energy about her that kept her ready to bolt at a moment's notice. It didn't make being hugged easy. She had to be calm, to consciously tell herself "this is safe, I won't need to run" to allow someone to wrap their arms around her. Sometimes she couldn't do it, even if she wanted to. She had never been good at physical contact or letting people in her personal space anyway. But there was one exception to that, because if there was one place that felt safer than a hard-to-access air-duct, one place where she didn't feel she would have to run if danger showed up unexpectedly, it was right in Eliot's personal space, close enough to rub shoulders.

* * *

Mornings should be a private moment you have to yourself, to wake up, prepare yourself for the day and quietly nurse a hangover. Morning should NOT involve your coworkers randomly dropping by with some "don't mind me" while you're drinking coffee in your underwear. But Nate guessed that's what made the team more of a family than coworkers. Still, he wished they hadn't taken over his apartment.

* * *

"Okay, that's it, you're coming with me," Eliot said, grabbing Hardison by the arm as he headed out and dragging the protesting hacker behind him.

"What, wait no, I'm working on this."

"You've been working on it for two days. You've been leaning increasingly close to your screen because your eyes are getting blurry. So yeah, you're getting away from it for a couple of hours. Seeing the sun again."

Seeing the sun again turned out to be a painful experience as it tried to make him blind and he did not see how a burning ball of Doom was supposed to be better for him than a computer screen. He was still squinting and being led around by the grip on his arm when Eliot manhandled him into his truck.

"Wait, where are we even going."

"The farmers market."

"Why would I want to go to the farmers marker?"

"You can stay in the car if you want. Take a nap. You need it."

"Wha–why couldn't I have taken a nap back at the brewpub?"

"Because you wouldn't have."

* * *

"Eliot?" Nate called at his bathroom door. "You're still in here?"

"Can't a man use the bathroom in peace, Nate? Something you just can't rush it. Use the upstair bathroom."

Nate might have fallen for the 'I'm constipated' excuse if there wasn't a red streak of smudged blood on the handle.

* * *

If anyone had asked Hardison as a child what he would do if he was a millionaire, he would have said "drink orange soda out of a crystal champagne glass". As it turned out, his ambitions hadn't changed much.

* * *

Parker could admire Hardison's technical genius, but really, if he wanted to make her a robot assistant, he could find a more subtle color than bright green. How was she supposed to sneak anywhere with that?

* * *

Nate never met Parker. She was long gone, disappeared without a trace, by the time he got there. So he knew her from his research, her reputation, and the baffled comments from the people she stole from.

_"I got there in time to see someone dressed in black dive through a hole cut in the window. The tenth story window!"_

_"I didn't see anything, but I could swear I heard cackling in the vents."_

_"It was a ghost. That's the only explanation. No one could have gotten in and out of that vault in between the gards' rounds. This place is haunted."_

_"I got locked in a supply closet trying to help a guy stumbling out in his underwear and I was trying to leave through the vents when I came face-to-face with a girl. She was just... there. In a ventilation shaft! It's been an odd night."_

* * *

Eliot was the one Sophie was most wary of on her new team and she could tell the feeling was mutual. She had known of him as a potential threat to people in her line of work and she considered herself lucky none of the more shady people she had liberated art from had ever hired him to get it back. She had never run into him. She was pretty sure she had never run into him. He still looked somehow familiar, but she couldn't place from where.

Eliot was the one who, on the surface, was the least invested in the idea of forming a team. But he came back to them without any prompting. And for all he acted like he couldn't care less about any of them, his own stated reason for why they should do this was Nate's wellbeing. Sophie thought he wanted this for his own sake too, but that he did care about helping Nate. 

* * *

The job had been rough, but it was over. Nate was downstairs giving their client her money and Eliot was catching a post-job shower. The warm water did wonders for his bruises. He was starting to relax and unwind after days of tension when someone opened the door he knew he had locked. Parker. Any of them could pick the bathroom's simple lock, but not this quickly and silently. He sighed and parted the curtain.

"What do you want?" He saw that she had started shedding her clothes and he growled. "I'm already using the shower."

"I noticed." She finished taking her clothes off anyway.

"Then what are you doing?"

"I need to shower too. Move."

Eliot sighed and didn't bother arguing with her. He gave her space, resigned to his relaxing shower being crowded. He would have been content to ignore her, except...

"Stop staring at me!"

"You wouldn't let me poke you. How else am I supposed to know where you're hurt?"

* * *

Hardison may or may not be trying to impress her. Parker. She had a nice smile and looked like she was genuinely enjoying herself. She was also about to throw herself off a roof and that kind of fearlessness sure impressed him. The other guy, Eliot, he didn't know of. Didn't know what his job was supposed to be. But he thought impressing him might be beyond the scope of this one job. His default state seemed to be "grumpy" and he didn't seem to approve of Hardison. Now if instead of a one time thing... if this was a band of unlikely companions working together in a more permanent fashion... well, he could dream. But maybe then worming his way in the guy's heart would be in the plans.

* * *

Hardison placed a hand on each side of Eliot's face and looked him in the eyes, because this was Important and he needed to be sure Eliot was paying attention.

"You listen to me. You're important to us. You're not going to stop being important to us if you turn us down. You're ours, in whatever ways you want to be. So let me ask you again. Do you want to date us?"

Eliot was silent for a long moment, but when he did answer he met his eyes and he sounded confident. "No."

* * *

This was off to an awkward start. Parker glanced at Sophie's list of "safe subjects" she had copied in her hand. She looked back up at Peggy.

"Do you have any pets?"

Peggy's eyes lit up at that and it felt like finally getting a lock to click open. "Cats. I have _so many cats_."

* * *

Not many people attended the funeral of Madelaine Levesque, not many had known her and she hadn't been seen in years before her tragic car accident, but a man with a lot more grey in his hair than last time Sophie had seen him had given a heartfelt speech that might have brought tears to her eyes had she been a lesser grifter. Madelaine was dead and could not be crying in her coffin. Now Madelaine's coffin had been put in the ground, a lot lighter than it should have been, and Sophie stood by a tree and watched the mourners. She walked away when her phone rang.

"Tara. How are things going?"

"Find some alcohol. I need someone to get drunk with right now."

Sophie's lips curled into a smile. "What did they do?"

* * *

"Hey, Hardison, could you–"

"No. I can't. Do you have any idea what Parker's asking me to do? Does _she_  have any idea what she's asking to do? No, it's just 'Hardison, do your keyboard magic' and–" His rant came to an abrupt halt when he looked up from his screen to glare at Eliot. _"Ohgodwhathappened?!"_

"I'm bleeding."

" _I noticed!_  Haven't you ever heard of using a proper tone for emergencies?"

"Just get me the med-kit already!"

* * *

With Eliot, it was like having a brother again. Not like he was anything like the one Parker used to have. Hers had been sweet and fragile. Eliot growled when he spoke and didn't die if her mistakes got him hit by a car.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning to wait until I have more of those before posting them, but since there's a 4th of July one in there, I figured I should post them today.  
> Warning for PTSD. There's also a pillow fort and kittens and I've only hurt Eliot in, like, one of these.

Eliot dragged the two kids apart before anyone could be seriously hurt.

"Alright, enough! You, go home and think about what you did. And you! Keep your thumb on the outside when you're throwing a punch."

* * *

Amy watched the teenage girl with the unevenly cut hair and the tattered clothes walk in. One hand grasped the strap of a bulging messenger bag that might be holding all of her possessions and she looked around like she didn't think she was allowed to be there. She held something in her hand that Amy was too far to see but she knew what it was. One of the pub's business cards. The only question was whose handwriting had scrawled a message at the back this time.

Really, she should just design some coupons for "One Free Meal" that they could give these kids.

* * *

One of the reasons Hardison knows that most of Eliot's growling and snapping is an act is that he's the only person he knows who's _less_  grumpy before his morning coffee. He had found it was the best time to get him to agree to something he would otherwise refuse on principle.

* * *

Coming up from the bar to find that the team hadn't all gone home wasn't a surprise, but Nate had to admit he hadn't seen the pillow fort coming. It had been a long time since he hadn't had one of those in his living room. He walked around to the side where a flap served as a door and Hardison's feet were sticking out because these kids weren't actual children. He rolled his eyes and lifted the flap to take a look inside. His eyebrows went up.

Hardison and Parker he had expected, but Sophie laid on her back wearing his bathrobe, with a towel around her hair and a green face mask and clearly no plan to let herself be kicked out of his apartment. Eliot was curled up in a corner with an arm protecting his bruised ribs and he didn't stir at Nate's presence. Hopefully because he had taken some painkillers and not because he had slipped into a coma due to a concussion they hadn't known of. Parker was the one who cracked an eye open to look at him.

"Join us in the pillow fort."

"I think I'll be fine in my bed."

"We stole all of your blankets and pillows. You don't have a choice. Come inside."

* * *

"You sure you don't want to come? It's a bit last minute but we've gotten into much more exclusive places than comic-con."

Eliot lifted his eyes from his book just long enough to give him  flat stare. "I'm not being seen in public with you while you're wearing a Green Hornet costume."

"It's Green Lantern, we've been over this! You know what, fine. You could have been Batman but instead you're just staying at the hotel while we have all the fun. Have you seen Parker? We need to get going."

Eliot just gestured vaguely at him without looking up. Hardison frowned and turned around. And came face to upside-down-face with a Spiderman mask. "Woah! Parker!"

Hanging from the ceiling, Parker lifted the bottom of her mask so he could see her grin. "It's Peter Parker now."

* * *

Nate had just meant to get up quickly to use the bathroom and go back to bed, but there was noise coming from downstairs and the kitchen's light was on. He hadn't quite expected to find Eliot cooking something or other at three in the morning.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was out of fresh ginger at home and there's nowhere I can buy it this late."

"And I have fresh ginger?" he asked, because he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to 'why aren't you sleeping instead'.

The look Eliot sent him said 'of course you do, who do you think stock your kitchen' and Nate decided to drop it and go back to sleep.

* * *

"And the vet said her paw will heal and she should be fine soon and look at her, isn't she adorable?"

Peggy took out her phone to show Alice a picture of the stray kitten that someone had left in a box on her doorstep. She must have a reputation as the neighborhood crazy cat lady.

"Oh. It's very orange."

Odd comment but she was used to those from Alice. "That hadn't been obvious at first, poor thing was so dirty. But now she's all clean and fed and on her way to being healthy and I'm a few thousand dollars short but she's so worth it and she's starting to let the other cats near now."

"A few thousand dollars?" And this was Alice's first comment that didn't seem rehearsed. She had a thing for money.

"Well, yeah, she doesn't exactly have healthcare coverage."

Two weeks later, another box appeared on Peggy's doorstep. With another tiny, starving kitten. And a bundle of 100$ bills.

* * *

Parker took to fishing with a lot more enthusiasm than Hardison had. But fishing with Parker was... creepy. But all things considered, Eliot would rather she let out her sadistic tendencies by watching worms squirm and fishes fight for their lives than by tazering people.

* * *

"Hardison, those cupcakes have literally only two ingredients. Orange soda and white cake mix. Why do you need me to make them?"

"Well, you know, you're the one that cooks. I'm not so good at it."

"If you can fake an antique, you can bake some damn cupcakes."

* * *

"I already forgot your names," she had told them again when the five of them scattered, but the only thing running through Parker's head as she walked away was 'if you leave now, you lose everything'.

* * *

Image only mattered when someone was looking, Sophie knew, so she didn't hesitate to dash over the grassy park with her heels in her hands just so she could be exactly where she wanted once the spotlight was on her. The audience didn't need to know what went on behind the scene.

* * *

It became a yearly tradition. Sophie would groan and complain about Americans. She'd insist on staying in watching something very British on Netflix while the others went to watch the fireworks. She'd ask Eliot to join her, and he'd protest but would end up drinking tea on the couch with her anyway watching whatever she had chosen this time ("as long as it's not Doctor Who"). He'd pretend not to be bothered by the sounds coming from outside and she'd pretend not to notice him flinching. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm keeping this marked as complete, but there might be more in the future. I tend to not write full fics kind of a lot.


End file.
